5.2 – The Bone of Contention

There is no escape from the joy of motherhood. Benny arrives on the Clutch to recover a bone and a frightened young Galyari latches onto her!

1 Comment

Tom Swift
on May 9, 2016 at 2:17 AM

The Bone of Contention

Simon Forward seems justly proud of the Galyari, which despite protests from some listeners that they were difficult to listen to (not a view I shared, the audio quality seemed fine to me) were widely acclaimed as a successful take on the ‘society’ of aliens whilst still sticking to a format closer to Doctor Who than Star Trek. The Clutch is a very visual concept, as is the concept of chameleonic creatures, but somehow Forward created a brilliant drama that used these elements and made them important to the plot. As Series Five of Bernice Summerfield continues the trend of ‘returning monsters of the week’ it makes sense to bring one of their more successful original creations back.

The Bone of Contention is set prior to the Sandman, although it isn’t necessarily a prequel. Mordecan returns, bereft of his irish accent (it is explained in the plot but not in a way I found convincing, and actually the loss of it made him slightly… bland to be honest). Also treated differently are the Galyari voices, slightly clearer and less fuzzy but still recognisably similar. In this timeline the Galyari are still living in fear of the Sandman, searching for ways to defend themselves. They are known for a fondness of avian species, have bought an ancient artefact in a previous deal, and Bernice has been sent to collect it back. So far, the concept seems sound.

The execution however, sadly, leaves something to be desired. Bernice storms around at the start of the play, bursting into a sealed laboratory then acting surprised when she’s set upon by its startled occupant. For every moment of genius she shows (advertising Mordecans’s services in a personal ad rather than searching for him across the clutch is particularly good) she counters it with an angry remark or careless blunder. I’ve commented before that Bernice’s character is fairly malleable but she’s particularly roughly treated here.

The two Galrayi lead actors do their best but the script does not particularly well treat them. The plot concerns the violent activity of non speaking role Griko. Relentless sounds of a harsh breathing, whining, clearly agitated but otherwise mute character smash things, fight things and throw all sorts of tantrums is not pleasant.

At the end of the play Bernice looses all perspective and goes completely insane in her attempts to mother the wildly dangerous infant. This treads similar territory to the Mirror Effect, with something insanely dangerous looking for a mother to help it grow and using Bernice’s experiences with Peter as a template, but unlike the former play the histrionics just seem out of place.

I can’t actually fault a single actor not doing their part, and although I preferred the ‘old’ Mordecan I did eventually warm to Robin Bowerman’s new performance by the end. Unfortunately the single disc structure doesn’t give enough time to properly see the Galyari society, and most of the Galyari dialogue directly concerns Griko, who for most of the play I just found annoying. I’m getting tired of hearing Bernice described as a ‘mothering’ figure yet never really seeing her spend quality time with Peter (the previous play excluded of course).

All in all it’s a worthy effort but it’s not as tight as it should be. There are clever ideas and strong themes but I was offput by the way Griko’s non-character completely absorbed the entire story.